Ahmed Abu Khattala, commander of the Libyan Ansar al-Sharia, who led the 2012 assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, has been captured in a secret US Special Operations forces raid in the same Libyan town. The Islamist terrorist, who was the prime mover in the attack which killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff, is now in US custody outside Libya. DEBKA Weekly 635 revealed exclusively on May 16 that US President Barack Obama had signed a secret Presidential Directive for the capture of Abu Khattala, dead or alive.

The US attempted to forge a new bloc of Turkey, Qatar, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to counterbalance Iranian power, but Morsi’s ouster as Egyptian president put an end to the short-lived alliance.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s admittance to the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Monday, Dec, 31 - with a blood clot caused by concussion - gave wings to the rumor and conspiracy theories surrounding her medical condition. Skepticism was voiced about any link between her concussion and a blood clot in her leg, suggesting concealment - especially in view of her three-week absence from the public eye. Rumors around the Gulf say Clinton was injured in a plane accident in Iran on her way to secretly meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

For Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to obtain Hamas’s consent to a ceasefire Wednesday, Nov. 21, Israel made certain concessions. The most damaging was acceding to Egypt’s role as truce monitor and arbitrator between itself and Hamas and the address for complaints of violations, misunderstandings and brokering future negotiations for regulating future relations. By this step, Israel accepted Egypt’s superior authority and demoted itself to an equal footing with a terrorist group, Hamas.

Five Grads hit Beersheba and a shell explodes in Metulah on the Lebanese border minutes after
the announcement in Cairo by Egyptian foreign minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Cairo Wednesday, Nov. 21. A statement from Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Avigdor Lieberman follows half an hour before the ceasefire is due to go into effect at 9 p.m. debkafile: Prime Minister earlier called President Barack Obama to inform him of Israel’s consent to the ceasefire.

Jerusalem, Cairo and Gaza awaited US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's arrival Tuesday night, Nov. 20, to clinch the Gaza ceasefire accord. Israel held back from approval until then and the Palestinians stepped up their missile blitz. debkafile’s analysts say that by giving in to international pressure for a ceasefire – against the objections of top military chiefs and intelligence pros - Israel’s leaders would show they have not learned from their predecessors’ mistakes in ending two wars inconclusively.

Obama has decided to break through the Syrian stalemate by sending scouts out to find a Syrian rebel with leadership qualities who is fighting Assad in Syria. When this leader is found and approved by the president, the United States will provide him and his militia with advanced hardware for winning the war.will be awarded

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is reported by debkafile as berating Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the powerful presentation of his case to the UN General Assembly for confronting Iran with red lines, instead of failed diplomacy and sanctions Thursday, Sept. 27. Neither released statements. President Barack Obama would not tolerate the Israeli leader having a say in his Iran agenda, she reportedly said, before announcing that the world powers had decided to go back to negotiations with Tehran.

Hillary Clinton leads a powerful State Department and Pentagon faction pushing for US military intervention in Syria. It is beginning to take effect. Obama called British and French leaders to tie up the ends of the assignment for small special operations teams to go into Syria and secure chemical weapons stocks.

The Syrian rebels’ Western and Arab sponsors have ratcheted up their military assistance by giving them tanks, 20 Russian-made T-62s from Libya, paid for by Qatar, after first providing them with their first Stinger anti-air missiles, debkafile reports. The FSA is now equipped to defend safe havens, thereby ushering in the next stage of the 18-month war for turning the tide against Bashar Assad. This development could bring the Syrian ruler closer than ever before to launching his chemical and biological weapons against his enemies.

The United States last week began laying plans for the contingency of Syrian chemical warfare by setting up joint military, intelligence and medical working teams with Israel, Turkey and Jordan. All three are feared under threat by Syrian president Bashar Assad, debkafile reports - as are US military facilities there. The White House, the CIA and the Pentagon’s DIA are laying odds on a Syrian unconventional attack, and all three countries under potential threat have ordered their medical services to make preparations.

Hillary Clinton announced in Istanbul Saturday, Aug. 11, that US and Turkish intelligence services and military were to set up a joint working team to plan for “many contingencies including the very horrible scenario of the use of chemical weapons.” debkafile: Turkey has sent a first batch of anti-air, shoulder-carried Stinger missiles to Syrian rebels in Aleppo. It is feared Bashar Assad may regard this as a game-changer in the war and hit back with chemical attacks on the rebels, Turkey, Israel and Jordan.

Syrian rebels were stretched too thin and short of arms for winning Aleppo or for using Syrian army withdrawals from the rest of the country to establish safe havens. The opted for winning Aleppo – and have mostly likely lost.

The new Egyptian president is trying to carve out a niche for himself independent of his own Muslim Brotherhood. For this he needs to make terms with the Supreme Military Council. It is too early to determine his chances of success.

“There is still a chance to save the Syrian state from a catastrophic assault that would be very dangerous not only to Syria, but to the region,” said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tokyo, Sunday, July 8. “… the opposition is getting more effective… and going on the offensive against the Syrian military.” debkafile: In desperation, the Assad regime may open up its WMD arsenals against the rebel advance and spread the flames to other parts of the region, including Israel. Hence her references to catastrophe and the region.

In 17 months of brutal operations, the Syrian army has lost 8,763 dead and 21,357 wounded soldiers, 600 tanks and APCs, and a stream of high-ranking defectors. Yet neither Bashar Assad nor his ruling family appears to falter or fear failure. Why? Because Assad has purged the top command of veteran commanders and installed loyal Alawites in their stead. How does the desertion of Brig.-Gen. Manaf Tlass, 105th Brigade commander of the Republic Guard and member of a prominent Sunni clan, fit into this picture?

Agreement on a Syria-led transition based on mutual consent that includes members of the current government” was reported by UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan from the Action Group on Syria meeting in Geneva Saturday, June 30. He avoided mentioning Bashar Assad, but was not able to conceal the gap between Washington and Moscow over the Syrian ruler’s fate: The US still wants him gone, while Russia is still adamant about propping him up. That is the devil in the Annan peace effort.